Working in Japan, at Home

It has been a year since I moved to Japan to work as an engineer.  It has been a weird experience for me so far as I move here amidst the pandemic - working in a Japanese company but staying at home is just like working in my home country. I was working as an engineer in my home country as well, but in a Japanese company, so basically talking to my Japanese coworkers in Japan online. Moving here, I was expecting to meet Japanese people and work with them in person, but due to the pandemic I wasn’t able to do that. One good thing though with working at home in Japan is not being stressed out with the daily transportation and to be comfortable at home.

Working at home in Japan, I think what I have improved the most has been reading emails and messages in Japanese. Our company doesn’t have so many meetings - Japanese people in my company seem more comfortable with talking via chat or email, at least that is what I have observed in this company I am working with.  Being a foreigner, my Japanese coworkers are nice even we though only talk through chat platforms. They are very forgiving about my grammar and how I use it in writing emails. I wasn’t good at composing emails as I talk more and in my previous company they didn't seem to bother it that much. But in writing emails and through chat, I am more conscious of my grammar as this is a working environment and I want to make my emails more polite.

As I mostly stay at home, I try to work really hard on learning about composing proper emails and learning how to make messaging in Japanese a usual thing for me.  Working at home, I am not doing a lot of overtime, contrary to what other people in the world might think of working life in Japan.

So far, even during the pandemic and just working at home, I try to excel in my work as an engineer here in Japan and make the most out of the situation.  I do wish to experience working in a Japanese office someday, too, when the pandemic finishes, hopefully soon.  I say it is a one-of-a-kind experience working in Japan ... but at home, but I will try to enjoy it and maybe make time to study more about Japanese and the culture so that when I can finally work in the office I will not embarrass myself.

This year though, I was happy to experience the sakura in Japan.  Though I work at home I tried to enjoy myself with the blossoms near my house.

This is all my thoughts on my working condition here in Japan and I just want to share it to other foreigners too who are in the same situation as me.